Power Rangers S.P.D. (Space Patrol Delta) was the thirteenth incarnation of the Power Rangers television series, based on the Super Sentai series Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger (Special Investigation Squadron Detective Ranger).

A Japanese dub of S.P.D. was aired on Toei's digital television channel in Japan starting in August 2011, with two DVD volumes released on August 5. It features the original Japanese Dekaranger cast members dubbing over the voices of their American counterparts.[1]

Contents

Production History

Power Rangers S.P.D was a milestone season behind-the-scenes and for the fanbase, but also one of the most controversial among fans.

After two years on the series, Doug Sloan and Ann Austen departed as the primary writers and producers of PR, paving the way forward for Greg Aronowitz and Bruce Kalish to take over, with Jackie Marchand staying on as a writer. Joining Kalish were several of his colleagues from Hollywood, including David Garber. Kalish's resume includes shows such as Mork and Mindy, The Incredible Hulk and The Fall Guy.

Kalish and Aronowitz's combined effort on the early portions of SPD gained instantaneous praise from the fanbase, as SPD proved to be one of the more ambitious PR seasons ever attempted, with a rare cast of strong actors portraying each character with gravitas and investment, as a result, the cast became hailed as perhaps one of the best in the show's history. It was also at this time that the production crew opened communications with the fandom, which Sloan had previously done, enabling fans to conduct interviews and have conversations with the cast and the producers.

Even the first set of episodes were superb due to the quality backstage talent. After the two-part opener, each Ranger got an entire episode devoted entirely to their character development (episode 3 was Jack's, episode 4 was for Sky, 5 for Syd, 6 for Bridge, and 7 and 8, which were a single, two-part episode, for Z). Sam, although still a child, entered the show with a very well-received two-part episode (which he shared the spotlight with Z), and the Shadow Ranger was introduced, once again, through a very well-received two-part episode.

As the season continued, it became obvious S.P.D was struggling with it's own status quo and storylines, as more filler episodes translated storylines from Dekaranger to push the season towards a conclusion (including the episode Samurai which is set in Japan). A brief reprieve for this complacent writing came when Jackie Marchand's two-part storyline "Reflection" resolved Sky's struggle with his personal demons, but it wouldn't last. By the time the Dino Thunder/S.P.D crossovers "History" and "Wormhole" aired, the latter was crucified for not being able to properly accommodate Jason David Frank, as he was back in the States.

The interaction with the cast and crew gradually minimized as Kalish later admitted his own children had browsed Rangerboard and were horrified by the crass, derogatory criticism and humorous anecdotes made about him. In a second interview, Kalish defended his dependence on Sentai material, insisting his crew were simply "paid to translate, not tell original stories."

Synopsis

"In the not-too-distant future, Earth has become a haven for all alien races who come from the farthest reaches of the galaxy to live in peace. 99% of the newcomers live in harmony, but for the 1% who can't there is Space Patrol Delta, the new breed of police, to bring them in."

The story takes place in the year 2025, after Earth has welcomed alien beings to live peacefully with the human race. But peace is short lived, as the planet-conquering Troobian Empire turns its destructive attention to Earth. When the Earth's first line of defense, the S.P.D. A-Squad, vanishes without trace, the protection of the planet falls to their replacements: the B-Squad Rangers, and their commander, Anubis Cruger.

When two reformed thieves join the team as the Red and Yellow S.P.D. Rangers, tensions threaten to tear them apart. With the alien threat growing stronger every moment, the Rangers must put aside their differences and go into action as one!

Using teamwork, intergalactic weaponry and light-speed Zord vehicles to battle evil, they unite to become one of the ultimate forces for good: Power Rangers S. P. D.! It's eventually revealed that the A-Squad is in fact evil and the B-Squad proves its might by defeating the former elite squad of SPD. With help from the S.P.D. commander and his wife Isinia, B-Squad destroys the true threat, Omni and Grumm is arrested for his crimes in front of S.P.D. headquaters on Earth by Cruger.

Delta Morphers - The morphers of B-Squad, activated by a call of "SPD Emergency!". This device contains 5 functions, separated by 3 different tabs:

Morph: The "Change" option on the Delta Morphers transforms the cadets into their ranger costumes.

Power Up to S.W.A.T. Mode: When the Rangers activate the "Change" option while morphed and call for it, their S.W.A.T. armor appears.

Communicator: The "Phone" option serves as basic communication allowing the Rangers to contact each other or the Academy, as well as summon the Delta Runners.

Judgment Scanner: The "Judge" option assesses the guilt or innocence of anyone the Rangers bring into custody. It measures pulse and electrical impulses before rendering a verdict, and it never makes mistakes.

Containment Mode: If a criminal is charged Guilty, this subsection of "Judge" will blast him with Anti-Matter Fusion, sealing him in a Containment Card and making transportation of the detainee a non-issue.

Patrol Morpher - The Shadow Ranger's morpher looks exactly the same as the Delta Morphers and has the same functions, but is colored black.

Omega Morpher - The Omega Ranger's morpher features a throttle control that gives him access to a variety of powers including:

Electro Mode: The Omega Morpher's main attack, an electrifying attack that can injure opponents greatly.

Blast Mode: Allows the Omega Ranger to gather energy in the palm of his hand before discharging it as a powerful shockwave.

Power Mode: Similar to Muscle Mode, it increases the Omega Ranger's strength.

Muscle Mode: Enhances the Omega Ranger's physical strength.

Hyper Mode: Once this is activated, Omega Ranger can either slow down time or increase his speed at will.

Light beam Mode: The Omega Ranger attacks his opponent with a "bar" of energy as a finishing move.

Charged-up Mode: The Omega Ranger can strengthen his stats.

Judgment Scanner: The "Judge" option assesses the guilt or innocence of anyone the Rangers bring into custody. It measures pulse and electrical impulses before rendering a verdict, and it never makes mistakes.

Magna Morpher - The Magna Morpher is the upgrade for the Red Ranger and allows Jack to call the S.P.D. Battlizer. It is stored within a special compartment in R.I.C., and looks like the Omega Morpher.

S.P.D. Battlizer - Accessed by the Magna Morpher, the S.P.D. Battlizer was designed by Kat and Boom. The Battlizer has two modes, the second mode utilizing a reconfigured R.I.C.

Cyber Mode: Enhances Jack's agility and fighting ability to superhuman levels and features a sword as well as strategically placed armor.

Shadow Saber - Personal weapon of the Shadow Ranger. Its blade can be enhanced at the push of a button.

S.W.A.T. Mode - Special Weapons And Tactics - This technology, created by Kat and stolen by Piggy, was rebuilt and given to the B-Squad Rangers once they learned to work together in S.W.A.T. Part 2. In this mode, they gain the Delta Enforcers and chest armor. Also, the lights on their helmets extend and become antenna/communication devices. S.W.A.T. has many other valuable functions, including heat seeking and nightvision. The Rangers summon this armor via their morphers ("SPD, S.W.A.T. mode!" is the call).

Delta Enforcers - These powerful guns associated with S.W.A.T. mode have different functions depending on the card swiped and inserted into them, such as Containment Mode.

VHS/DVD Releases

The Comic Strip

A new monthly comic strip based on the series appeared every issue of "Jetix Magazine" in the UK. Jetix Magazine was the official magazine of JETIX, the channel that aired S.P.D. in the UK. The strip was the first Power Rangers strip to be written by legendary Transformers writer Simon Furman, collaborating for the first time on the PR strip with equally popular TF artist Andrew Wildman, who had previously done artwork for other Power Rangers strips under Jetix Magazine's previous banner of Fox Kids' Wickid.

Notes

This season seems to borrow a lot of plot points from Abaranger. Here are a few similarities:

Both series feature a mentor who is also an extra ranger who lost his homeworld to the villains. Said ranger also thought to have lost his wife to the villains, who is later revealed to be alive. (Asuka and Doggy Cruger)

Both feature a childlike female villain who is later forcibly grown into an adult body. (Lije/Lijewel and Mora/Morgana)

Both feature a godlike villainous leader who later uses the villain's base as their final body. (Dezumozorlya and Omni)

Both feature an episode where a non-ranger ally pretends to be a ranger using a homemade costume to impress their parents. (Emiri as Abarepink and Boom as SPD Orange)

S.P.D. ties with Power Rangers Wild Force for having the most rangers in a single season at 19 (5 A-Squad Rangers, 5 B-Squad Rangers, 4 additional Rangers and the 5 Dino Thunder Rangers; and 6 Wild Force Rangers, 6 Time Force Rangers from Reinforcements from the Future, and the 7 previous Red Rangers in Forever Red, respectively). Ironically, Tommy Oliver is included in both numbers of Rangers, though he never appeared unmorphed in Wormhole, unlike in Forever Red. At Anime Central 2008, Jason David Frank stated that Disney never contacted him about returning for Wormhole.

It is the first series to feature Pink Rangers that did not have skirted uniforms (Syd and the A-Squad Pink Ranger) and also the first time that a female Yellow Ranger had no skirt but has a legitimate female Sentai counterpart.

It is the first season where the name is an acronym, and the first since Zeoto have only three letters in its name.

It is notable for featuring the first known Jewish Power Ranger; Bridge Carson, however, it was Power Rangers Zeo that was the first series to feature a Jewish character; the teens' non-Ranger friend Raymond.

It is the first Power Ranger series to feature an active seventh Ranger.

It is the first series to feature an active Ranger with a known identity who is not credited in the opening sequence (Omega Ranger).

It is the first series to feature an "Orange Ranger", imaginary or otherwise.

It is the first series to feature a new Ranger (Katherine "Kat" Manx as Kat Ranger) who has the same name as a previous one (the other being Katherine "Kat" Hillard, the second MMPR Pink Ranger) from Mighty Morphin to Turbo).

It is the first series to feature a new Ranger who shares a last name with a previous Ranger, but is not in any way related (Elizabeth "Z" Delgado, the S.P.D. Yellow Ranger, and Danny Delgado, the Black Bison Ranger from Wild Force).

According to the episode "Zapped", Syd is a Gemini, this would also make Jack a Gemini due to the fact in the episode "Stakeout", they decided to celebrate their birthdays on the same day.

It is the first series to have an episode take place in Japan, the country from which the Power Rangers' source material, Super Sentai, originated.

It is the first series in which one Ranger morphs using their teammate's powers. There have, however, been previous instances of powers being passed from one Ranger to another.

It is the first to have 3 female Rangers on one team and as of the final episode, 4.

It is the first to have a female Red Ranger (Red A-Squad Ranger). Bruce Kalish has said that he and the producers of the show had to convince Disney to use a female Red Ranger, and that while it may be a small step now, it may one day lead to a full-time female Red Ranger on the show. It would take Toei, the producer of Super Sentai until 2009's Samurai Sentai Shinkenger to feature a female Red Ranger.

Near the ending of the last episode, the possibility of another female Red Ranger was posed, when Cruger suggested to Sky that he appoint Syd as Red Ranger.

It is the first series to coin the term, "Ranger Up", meaning as a preparation to morph.

It is the first series to have members promoted to a new color. At the end of "Endings, Part 2", Jack leaves S.P.D. to be with Ally (his new girlfriend). Sky is promoted to Red and Bridge becomes the Blue Ranger.

Power Rangers S.P.D. is the second series where the Power Rangers belonged to a law enforcement organization, the first being Time Force. This time is the first that things are actually labeled "Police" (however, in the first episode of Time Force, they were referred to as Time Force Secret Police occasionally).

Jack Landors is the first Power Ranger to voluntarily resign his position without any outside influence or obstacles determining his decision.

It is the first series since Power Rangers in Space that the entire Power Rangers team did not battle the main villain in the final episode (only the Red Space Ranger, Andros, battled Astronema in the finale of in Space whereas only the Shadow Ranger battled Emperor Gruumm in the finale of S.P.D.).

It is the first series since Time Force that the Rangers do not lose their powers in the final episode; however unlike Time Force, their main Megazord was destroyed.

It is the first series since Wild Force to not have its base of operations destroyed in the final episodes.

The first series to feature an entire team of American-created Rangers: The S.P.D. A-Squad Rangers. The second series to feature any American-created Ranger, the first being Lightspeed Rescue's Titanium Lightspeed Ranger. The A-Squad's helmets are refurbished Power Rangers: In Space helmets with S.P.D. emblems on top, the back and sides redesigned and the Black Ranger's helmet repainted green. The primary uniforms of the A-Squad appear to be motocross padding and black spandex.

It is the first series to end with the morphing call and show the logo in the final shot of the final episode.

It is the first season where the monsters do not grow to large sizes, but instead, retreat to the cockpits of zord-sized robots for the final battle.

It is the first series to be fully set in a time frame other than the year of its airing (set in 2025, 20 years after its air year of 2005). Despite also having Rangers from the future, the bulk of the episodes for Time Force were set during the year of its airing (2001).

Fans were extremely displeased when it was revealed that the much-anticipated Omega Ranger would be nothing more than a ball of light when unmorphed (thereby meaning there was no morph sequence for the Ranger.) For a split second in Endings, Sam was demorphed by entering the time portal that would take him back to 2040 and viewers got a fleeting glimpse of the man behind the visor. Bruce Kalish has since admitted that the ball of light was a mistake, and wished he'd fought harder to make Omega a real person. [Citation needed]

While early promos said S.P.D. was set in 2020, the date given in the show is 2025.

"Katastrophe", "Missing", "History" and "Impact" were aired out of production order.

S.P.D. is somewhat infamous for two airing mistakes

In Canada, on July 30, 2005, Wormhole, the second part of the S.P.D./Dino Thunder teamup, was aired instead of the scheduled Messenger, Part 1. Wormhole had been slated for a strictly-DVD release.

Also, the episode Impact (Production #1533) was aired 28th in the series, accompanying a "Previously on Power Rangers: S.P.D.", which featured scenes from History, slated to air after Impact.

S.P.D. is the first series since Power Rangers: Time Force to have any of the team's Megazords survive the finale. Although the Delta Squad Megazord was destroyed, the S.W.A.T. Megazord, Delta Command Megazord, and Omegamax Megazord all survived.

S.P.D. is the only series to have all the titles of their episodes consist of one word. This is an in-joke by producer Bruce Kalish as he had previously worked on Black Hole High, a fantasy series which also consisted of one word titles.

In the beginning of the series, Kat mentioned that the Judge function of the Delta Morphers would seal criminals in "containment cards". Though this was utilized for a majority of the series, the season was sometimes inconsistent, and in some episodes, the monsters and/or their robots exploded instead of being contained.

In "Dekaranger", the Rangers' weapons, zords, and even (at times) enemies used guns that shot bullets. Disney, deciding that it would be a bad idea for children to see bullets being used, went and digitally added 'laser beams' over any scene of a bullet being shot during clips of Sentai footage. In a similar edit, in 'Dekaranger', the Rangers would point their fingers in a gun shape, aim at the screen, and then bullet holes would seem to "hit" the screen. This scene was replaced with a similar scene at a different camera angle (with the bullets removed).

Due to the smaller size of the American "Delta Morpher" compared to the Japanese "SP License", the "Delta Enforcer" weapon had to be changed in America. While in Japan, the Delta Enforcer's equivalent (the "D-Revolver") defeated criminals by having the SP License placed inside of it , the U.S. toy had "Containment Cards" swiped through it. This resulted in any scenes of the Rangers using the "finisher" ability on this weapon being changed to match the U.S. toy's features.

This season didn't feature a super-motorcycle designed for one of the Rangers, a trend started in Power Rangers Lost Galaxy (the Uniforce Cycle doesn't count since it was Omega Ranger's personal vehicle).

Although previous seasons had used them, this was the first season to make the concept of "on duty" uniforms a permanent theme.

"Wormhole" is the second team-up episode with the team from the previous season not to have two parts, the first one being Time For Lightspeed, or in the case of the In Space and Lost Galaxy, a sequel.

It is the first (and so far only) season to have a team of Rangers with a morphing sequence, but no morphing call. The A-Squad Rangers, in their fight with the B-Squad, had a puff of smoke surround them, and they morphed instantly, with no words being spoken.

This is the second series since Lightspeed Rescue where the Rangers' identities are known to the public.

In the fourth episode, when Sky is looking at a picture of his father in his Red Ranger uniform, the father is wearing the Red Time Force Ranger costume, while the young Sky is holding the red Time Force helmet.

It is the first series since Power Rangers In Space to have its theme written and performed by Ron Wasserman. However, due to the fact he personally leaked some early demos of the S.P.D. theme on the Internet, he was not brought back to do the theme to S.P.D.'s successor, Mystic Force, despite the fact he had already made two demos for it.

S.P.D. is the last season (as of Power Rangers Megaforce) to have a team up with the previous whole team; it is the last season to feature a team up where the current team morphs first.